FW13 Fan Noise (Scraping/rattling)

Hello,

I have owned my Framework 13 laptop for a bit more than a year now. As of a couple days ago, the fan makes a scraping sound when it spins, even at low RPM. This is the second time this has happened since I got the laptop.

The first time, the symptoms were the same. I contacted support, who helped me troubleshoot the issue. When none of the suggested fixes worked, they sent me a replacement cooling assembly free of charge. The process was as painless as customer support can be and I was satisfied with my replacement.

But now that the issue is back it leaves me wondering: Is this going to happen every 6 months? Will I have to order a new fan twice a year because the bearings wear out? How common is this issue? Was I just unlucky and got two defective fans? I will try blowing out dust and checking for anything obstructing the fan, but I’m not confident that’s going to solve the issue.

A quick google search brings up a number of posts from users with the exact same problem. The solution always seems to be to replace the whole cooling system, which seems very wasteful considering it’s only the fan that is defective. Does anyone have a fix for this, other than getting a replacement? Is there a way to take the fan apart and put everything back in place? Have there been any hardware revisions in the past 6 months addressing the issue? If not, I will probably just stick with the noisy fan until it stops spinning.

I like having a laptop that I can repair, I don’t want a laptop that I have to repair twice a year.

1 Like